25 Centimes

Geneva struck its own coinage independently until Swiss federal unification in 1848 effectively ended cantonal monetary authority. This 1847 issue was among the last produced before the Federal Coinage Act of 1850 consolidated currency across the new Confederation, rendering cantonal pieces obsolete almost immediately after striking. Surviving examples saw little circulation for precisely that reason.

The canton had maintained a complex monetary tradition heavily influenced by its position as a trading hub between France and the Italian states, with French monetary conventions exerting persistent pressure on Genevan denominations and weights throughout the first half of the nineteenth century.